Something More than Strangers
by derrx004
Summary: The tune caller wonders how to get to know these strangers, his sons.


Something More than Strangers

By Doc

_(A few weeks after The Homecoming)_

Murdoch rubbed his hand over his face and looked at the empty chairs around him. Until moments ago they'd been occupied by two sullen young men. "They're your sons. They want to love you." Teresa's optimistic words came back to him and he didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

It had hit him like Pardee's bullet when they walked in – together! – that first day: the children he'd mourned for so long didn't exist. Whatever traces remained in his memory of a wild black-haired toddler or a too-polite small blond gentleman evaporated the instant his sons entered the room. "We're strangers to each other," he'd told them. It was the bitter truth. And he still didn't know what to do about it.

Both sons were hardened veterans. True, they came from very different kinds of wars, but they each knew how to fight. Murdoch, his sons, and the best men of the estancia drove out the scum who dared try to take his land. But now that threat was past. Life should be returning to normal.

But none of them knew what normal looked like. At an age when young men usually went out into the world to seek their fortune, Murdoch's sons came home to claim theirs. They'd each earned their birthright, but when he called the tune he expected respectful obedience. Surely he'd earned that, for what he'd built for them.

He rarely got it.

Just now, when he told his sons he expected them to set an example for the other hands in town on Saturday night, Scott straightened his neck and flared his nostrils with that "Will I?" look. And Johnny said, " 'Other' hands, old man? Is that what you think of us?" in that icy drawl of his. And they both rose without excusing themselves and left the room, leaving Murdoch rubbing his face and thinking about that dog he'd mentioned to Teresa.

_(A few weeks later)_

The puppy Teresa gave him as a gift soon after that was nothing like he expected, either. The cur had short brown and white fur and came from some rat catching dogs in Morro Coyo. If he scolded it, the thing peed. If he raised his voice to it, the dog cringed and whined as if beaten. It avoided him when he walked outside, and Murdoch finally let it off the rope that kept it from running away. He half hoped it would do just that.

But it didn't. One day he heard a rare sound: genuine laughter coming from the front of the house. He got up from his desk to peer out the window; he saw his sons and Teresa sitting in the dirt, calling the puppy from one to the other. Each one called it a different name, but that didn't seem to make any difference to the dog. The creature ran with abandon to Scott (who called it "Fido"), and was met with smiles and rough pets. Then Johnny called ("Paco") and was rewarded with a lapful of dog. Teresa called it ("Patches") and it ran to her for more smiles and snuggles. The trio scooted further away from each other and they all called the puppy at the same time, and he ran in delirious confusion to whoever could get his attention in the moment.

Johnny jumped to his feet and ran past the puppy and kept going. The dog chased him as fast as its legs would carry it, oblivious to the shouts from Teresa and Scott. Johnny stopped, scooped the dog up in his arms, and strolled back to the others with a huge happy grin that stopped Murdoch's heart.

He recognized the grin. Dear God, he'd last seen that grin over twenty years ago…

Murdoch tore a piece of meat from the sandwich on the desk. Smiling, he walked outside. "Room for one more?" His days of sitting in the dirt were long gone, but he leaned against a wall and called the dog. "Here, boy." When Johnny put it down the dog looked at him with the same suspicion his sons did. When he held out the beef, the dog sniffed the air and took a step toward him.

"Hey! No fair!" Scott got to his own feet and smiled at his father. Johnny just shook his head, still grinning, as the puppy approached Murdoch slowly. Murdoch dropped the morsel on the ground, and the dog scarfed it up. Then he raised his head, tail wagging so hard his entire back end swung back and forth.

They all laughed and clapped at the sight, and for the first time Murdoch dared to feel they were something more than strangers.


End file.
